Have you ever heard this?
"I don't want to read the book of Revelation! There's way too many beasts and dragons in it....It's not meant to be understood."
Or something along those lines. Basically excuses about why we should not focus on one of the most important books in the entire bible? I know I have. In fact, I want to share with you the first time I experienced this book and how I now view it.
We're about to go 'story time' with Jongo again...
When I was a teenager, I grew up pretty secular. I always thought religion was just a way to keep people under control and honestly, I haven't changed my mind about that much these days. It might sound weird as a Christian to say that, but keep reading and you'll see what I mean...
And as a teenager, you are exposed to numerous theories and concepts when it comes to faith. Especially true for some of us that grew up in large cities. As they are a melting pot of cultures and ideas. I myself, was raised in Toronto Canada. A fairly big place :)
And one day, I got a call from one of my best friend's girlfriends. She was literally crying her eyes out and told me to come over to their apartment as soon as I could.
When I get there, my friend is sitting on the couch. With a blank stare. It was almost like someone or something had taken over his body. He just stared into space and when my other friend and myself tried to talk to him, he started getting visibly upset.
What was so creepy about it though, was that he was...Calm. Stoic almost but upset. Which seems like it contradicts itself but there's no other way I can describe it. He kept talking about the beasts of Revelation. Which I had no idea at the time, was his obsession with reading that single book of the bible...Over and over and over again.
I asked his girlfriend and with tears in her eyes, she just said...
"That's all he has been reading for weeks now. Every day, Revelation over and over again. And he just sits on the couch, doesn't eat, doesn't move. Just all day, talks about the beasts...".
Now without dragging the story on much more, eventually my friend got some counselling and they labelled him as depressed. It was such a shock to my circle of friends because even though the bulk of us were really secular, we did discuss religion a lot.
And one of our friends, who was much more versed in th bible than I was at the time summed it up perfectly...
"If you just read Revelation, without proper context and reading the entire bible....It won't make sense. And worse, you'll drive yourself crazy thinking about the beasts found in chapter 13."
This isn't a theological talk on the book, rather my first introduction to it. I thought it was a cursed book. I thought anyone that read it would go crazy and become depressed. So from the age of 17 to about 37...I never read it. Ever.
And you know what's sad....I missed the 3 fold blessing found, literally at the beginning of the book:
- Read.
- Hear.
- Keep.
So it's actually in our best interest to deep dive and truly study what some call...The 5th gospel of Christ.
What I learned so many years ago, that I'm finally putting into practice is...Read the entire bible. I think it's something like 40% of the verses in the book relate directly back to the Old Testament. And the companion book to understand Revelation is most definitely the book of Daniel.
So for me, it's big picture. For proper interpretation and understanding you have to read the ENTIRE bible. If you just sit there and focus on chapter 13 for example, you'll never know what those 2 beasts represent. The answers to that, are found elsewhere in the bible.
That's why we are taught, to go line upon line and be diligent students of Scripture. Not just surface readers, but actual students of the ENTIRE book.
As for my friend, he's now a humble Christian. He is raising a family and we still keep in touch to this day. He may not know it, but because of his 'challenging' experience with this book, I became quite passionate about it. I wanted to discover for myself with the help of the Holy Spirit...What a blessing this book could end up being for those that dive into it's pages.
Want to dive into this awesome book? Come hang out in the Kingdom Bible Study group in Discord. And let's dig into Scripture together!